The Mt. Diablo girls basketball team, from tipoff to the final buzzer, plays with an intensity and effort that reflects the ethos of their coach.

No matter their talent level, teams who play against Ronnie McGee’s Red Devils can expect to work for every inch during 32 grueling minutes.

“Pressure relieves pressure, and iron sharpens iron,” McGee told the Bay Area News Group. “If you want to be considered an elite team, you cannot be afraid to play good competition. … I’m proud of my girls for playing hard, not giving up, and playing hard every second and not giving up an inch on the court.”

McGee spent 22 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in October 2013 as a senior non-commissioned officer tasked with training younger soldiers. He now runs Mt. Diablo’s JROTC program and is an athletic director for the school.

In four years as the Concord school’s basketball coach, he’s taken the lessons learned in the military and applied them to the hardwood.

“It teaches you different types of leadership styles, and because all players are different, it teaches you how to have a relationship with each different player and bring it into a team environment,” said McGee, a native of Twin City, Ga.

He added, “It taught me how to teach young people how to overcome adversity and the different challenges in life, and how to be disciplined and how to work as a team.”

His methods have been effective, with Mt. Diablo (12-10, 3-4) a competitive team within the tough Diablo Athletic League and well on its way to making the section playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

Perhaps no player is more emblematic of McGee’s philosophy than senior guard Natalie Dance, who will mix it up inside despite often being one of the smallest players on the court at 5-foot-3.

“We take pride in being the underdogs,” said Dance, who often wakes up at five in the morning to work on her shooting and dribbling skills with her father Paul.

In addition to being regulars in the section playoffs, Mt. Diablo has also become a mainstay in NorCal play under McGee.

Since taking over, McGee has helped instill pride and a sense of self-belief in a program that had endured five consecutive losing seasons before 2021-22.

“Our history wasn’t good,” senior Stephanie Zuniga said. “But we have a new coaching staff, new players and we’re ready to fight for everything.”

— Joseph Dycus

LIBERTY: LIONS WANT OPEN DIVISION SPOT >> Liberty’s Cinderella run through the North Coast Section playoffs ended in heartbreak last season.

Playing in front of a raucous Dublin crowd, the Lions’ comeback bid fell just short as the Gaels pulled away late to advance to the NCS Division I championship game.

Despite upsetting the then-No. 2 seed, Berkeley, and reaching the section semifinals, No. 7 Liberty was not granted an at-large bid to the CIF NorCal playoffs.

The Lions are determined not to have a repeat of last season.

They are in a similar position to where they were in 2024. They have run through the Bay Valley Athletic League and boast a 22-2 record with the only losses coming against Campolindo and Lincoln-Stockton.

As of Saturday, Liberty is ranked fifth in the MaxPreps NCS rankings, which would slot the Brentwood school as an Open Division team for the section playoffs. The NCS Open Division is made up of the section’s top six teams, with each receiving an automatic bid to the NorCal playoffs.

Some could look at Liberty’s strength of schedule and point to why the Lions should still be a Division I team. Out of the top six teams in the MaxPreps NCS rankings (De La Salle, San Ramon Valley, Salesian, Dublin and California), the Lions have the lowest strength of schedule rating and have arguably the worst loss out of any of those five teams with their 47-39 defeat to Campolindo early in the season.

But new coach Rich Morton still believes the best route for his team is to go through the Open Division.

“Even if the NCS considers us to be an Open team, that means we’re one of the best of the best,” he said. “In my mind that’s a win-win situation. I told my team, ‘We have to think about state playoffs whether we go or not.’ If we don’t even think about it, we don’t have a chance. So by going Open now, they see that it is a step closer to what we were thinking about.”

— Nathan Canilao

LOS GATOS: BRENNAN CHANNELS FOOTBALL MENTALITY IN RETURN TO COURT >> Is Scotty Brennan a football player playing basketball, or a basketball player who also plays football?

It doesn’t matter. Whatever the sport, Brennan is a ferocious competitor, willing to take any opponent head – or hands – on.

Case in point: When Los Gatos welcomed in Palo Alto for a big-time hoops matchup on Jan. 24 at home, Brennan had just returned from a broken right hand that kept him out several weeks. The hand was heavily wrapped with tape, but he played on.

“Having our best guy come back, got his cast off yesterday,” Los Gatos coach Nick Ward said. “Asked him to play, I think, 31 minutes, and asked everyone really to step up and gut it out.”

Despite looking less than perfectly comfortable with his shooting touch after having been limited in several practices, Brennan managed to lead the Wildcats with 15 points, even hammering home an alley-oop dunk.

His football acumen came in handy on drives to the rim, where he cupped the basketball into his body with his left hand much as he would with a football.

“He’s got a big wrap on his right wrist,” Ward said. “And even though it’s his off hand, it’s different. It’s a challenge. So he’s getting used to it.”

— Christian Babcock

NORTHGATE: CHEER TEAM WINS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP >> Northgate captured its first cheer national championship in Las Vegas last weekend, placing ahead of traditional powerhouse Bishop O’Dowd to bring home the title.

“We were jumping up and screaming, and there were just tears and crying and everything,” coach Karma Christensen said. “When they said Northgate High School, we just could not believe it.”

Among those celebrating was Christensen’s daughter, Breanna, who was alongside Kailee Newberry and Jenna Peterson were the three captains and the founding members of the team.

“They are the ones that pushed to make this happen,” Christensen said. “They are amazing athletes and amazing students.”

The coach also spotlighted senior Katelyn Zheng, who returned to the cheer team this season after a one-year hiatus.

“She came back this year really wanting to get better, and she loved the competitiveness,” Christensen said.

The coach, who has officiated for USA Cheer, expects her team to continue competing for titles. She said Northgate had three freshmen and six sophomores this season.

– Joseph Dycus

FREMONT-OAKLAND: TIGERS ON THE RISE >> Fremont hasn’t found itself in a NorCal playoff game in eight years, but the Tigers are hoping this season could be different.

The Oakland school is off to its best start since the 2016-17 season as it has a 15-10 record and is currently third in the Oakland Athletic League standings.

On Wednesday, Fremont hung tough for three and a half quarters with OAL powerhouse and reigning CIF Division II state champions Oakland Tech in a 68-54 loss.

Led by Berkeley transfer Roy Bishop Jr., high-flying forward Jomari Bean, do-it-all guard Deyonte Spears and 6-foot-8 center Tyreese West, the Tigers are starting to come into their own after a slow start to the season that included a rigid schedule.

“We’ve just been trying to work on the small things,” coach Scot Alexander said after Wednesday’s loss. “This is a new team with six new kids trying to pay attention to detail. I figured the longer the season goes, if we could just get into the final four of the section playoffs, we’d be a tough out … It’s going to come through for us in the end.”

Fremont will be battle tested when the OAL playoffs begin in a few weeks. The Tigers have played Buchanan, St. Mary’s-Berkeley, Bellarmine, St. Joseph-Santa Maria, Grant-Sacramento and Palo Alto to get ready for a tough OAL schedule.

While an OAL championship is the goal for the Tigers, Fremont has its eyes set on a state playoff run as well.

“I want to get NorCal,” Alexander said. “We haven’t been there since 2017. But we’re also hoping to get to the OAL championship game. I’m hoping we can crash the party.”

– Nathan Canilao